Week 20: Apple Pandowdy

Apple Pandowdy

The apple pandowdy had such a unique name we figured that 1) it must be an old dessert (who would call a delicious dessert “dowdy” in the age of million dollar marketing campaigns) and 2) we should try it just because of its name. Now, I looked for some photos ahead of time to see what it would look like and realized that everybody makes it differently and it sometimes looks like a pie and sometimes like a cobbler. And, our recipe didn’t sound like it would look like any of them.

We chose to use our Mom’s Best Desserts cookbook for all of the traditional recipes on our list and this was obviously a traditional recipe. By the way, while searching for some photos, I found out that this cookbook is not in print anymore but found an updated one that took its place: 250 Treasured Country Desserts: Mouthwatering, Time-honored, Handed-down, Soul-satisfying Sweet Comforts by Andrea Chesman and Fran Raboff; that book is now on my wish list with 150 more recipes than my current book contains!! I also found a blog by Andrea https://www.andreachesman.com/ and I enjoyed reading it so I decided it needed to be bookmarked for regular reading.

Anyway, back to the pandowdy. The cookbook authors dispelled the myth that a pandowdy was called such because they don’t look very pretty, or dowdy. The authors state “A pandowdy is a cross between a pie and a pudding. It starts with a crust that is chopped up until it disappears into the fruit — a step that is called “dowdying”. With a filling that includes butter and a little cream, a pandowdy is richer than your average pie.”

We made our typical substitutions in this recipe. We used half all purpose flour mixed with white whole wheat for the crust, Splenda for our sugar, and Walden Farms Maple Syrup (zero calorie) for the pure maple syrup. We also used apple juice mostly because nobody at our house (but me if I wanted to drink all of my calories) would drink apple cider and the rest of it would go to waste. I think apple cider would be an excellent choice. Finally, we used our homemade half and half for the cream. Our half and half consists of half cream and half unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Ingredients

Pastry

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons butter, chilled
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• Approximately 1/4 cup ice water

Apple Filling

• 6 cups peeled and sliced apples (6 to 8 apples)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mace
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 cup cider or juice
• 1/4 cup light cream

Directions

1. To make the pastry, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a medium-sized bowl or in a food processor. Cut in the butter and shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add just enough ice water to allow the mixture to hold together. Divide into two balls and flatten into disks. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly butter a 1 1/2 quart baking dish.
3. To prepare the filling, in a large bowl combine the apples, cinnamon, mace, 1/3 cup of the maple syrup, and 4 tablespoons of the butter.
4. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one piece of dough about 1/8 inch thick to fit into the baking dish. Transfer the dough to the dish and trim the uneven edges. The dough should fit up the sides of the baking dish, but don’t worry if it doesn’t. Spoon the apples into the baking dish, scraping out the syrup and butter from the bottom of the bowl. Roll out the second piece of dough and fit it over the apples. Seal against the side of the dish.
5. Bake for about 10 minutes. Remove the pandowdy from the oven and reduce the heat to 325 degrees F. Using a sharp knife or chopper, cut the crust into the fruit, until the crust has almost disappeared into the fruit. Combine the apple cider, cream, the remaining 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Pour over the top. Return the pandowdy to the oven and continue to bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the fruit is tender.
6. Serve warm. (Makes 6 servings.)

Our Experience

This is virtually an apple pie with a few extra steps from what we can tell after reading the directions. We assembled our ingredients and Aubrey started on the pastry while I worked on the filling. There was a pile of “stuff” for this recipe. Note that we do not have stone ground corn meal or pure maple syrup on that counter.

We bought two varieties of apples because we recently read somewhere that it would produce a better flavor profile. We figured no time like the present to test it. The recipe called for pure maple syrup. We felt just a little guilty for using a lesser ingredient, but, the zero calorie syrup was not only better for our calorie count but it was also an ingredient we had on hand.

No surprise here, but we used the KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment to cut the fat into the dry ingredients. Recently we thought we might be missing on some sort of “experience” by not making things the old fashioned way. We made homemade pasta the night before and decided to make it “by hand” and, after taking what seemed like forever, decided there’s no shame in using the mixer if we have one and it works for the recipe at hand!! When I try to fuel my body every 3 hours, eating late is an unnecessary frustration…from now on, mixer!!

Once the dough was made, Aubrey weighed it and divided it in two. We decided that we weren’t going to have any leftovers. We planned to use every bit of the dough so we decided we would piece it together and fold it under to use all of it.

Since I made the filling while Aubrey made the dough, we didn’t wait to let the dough cool before rolling it out and that might have made it a little more difficult to work with but a little sprinkle of flour here and there was all it needed. It was similar to my pie crust in that it tore pretty easily but was also very easy to piece back together. We didn’t trim off the extra (we didn’t want any extra), we ripped it off and then added on other areas where the dough didn’t go up as high or where it had torn.

I have an attachment to my mixer to peel, core, and slice apples. There are a few parts and it does take some time to get it set up and to use. For that reason, I kind of have a 7 apple minimum before I get it out. This recipe had 6 so I debated getting it out but, in the end, peeled, cored, and sliced them by hand. Whenever I make an apple dessert, I sprinkle lemon juice on the cut ones as I am working on the rest of the apples. Since I did everything by hand it took about half an hour and a fair amount of lemon juice. I don’t know the exact amount but I’m guessing it was at least 1/4 cup. It keeps them from getting brown and the added tartness in the recipe doesn’t bother me at all.

Once the apples were ready to go, we wanted to work pretty quickly. If we waited too long, the apples would create more juice and since we noticed that there was no thickener in this recipe, we didn’t want there to be a lot of extra liquid (not to mention the added lemon juice).

I don’t know if I have mentioned how much I hate my oven, but, I really hate my oven. It isn’t accurate on temperature and very inconsistent, and no matter how we try, there are days we can’t get it right (we do have an actual thermometer in it to check the true temp but it fluctuates for seemingly no reason). We cooked it for the 45 minutes and it wasn’t close to being done. We kept cooking it for 15 more minutes and checked it for doneness and finally decided to raise the temperature to 350 degrees. We ended up cooking it 40 minutes longer than the recipe stated. (And, we still didn’t know if it was done.) We aren’t sure what happens with the oven (often with casseroles or deep dishes) but there are days when it takes double the time to cook things and this was one of them.

What we liked.

We had 4 out of 4 thumbs up on this. (Logan doesn’t like apple pie so didn’t even want to try this dessert.) Kip and Garrett, being true apple pie fans, absolutely loved it. I gotta say, I really loved it too!

I was “worried” that it would be soupy since it didn’t have any thickening agent to deal with all the juices the apples were bound to create. Enter the crust that was broken up and pushed into the apples!! Those pieces of crust soaked up all of the extra juices and, I think it was a genius who figured that out!! It had a much better texture than tapioca or cornstarch or flour thickeners create in most fruit pies. It was just like those soft pieces of crust that have been sitting in the pie juices and become drenched and “soggy” (in a good way), so delicious. If my dang oven weren’t so temperamental, it would have been perfect. Some of the apples were “al dente”, which wasn’t bad, just not my personal preference, but that was due to the oven issues.

The crust was unique too! I loved the texture of it. Buttery, sweet, and crispy. Granted, we used half whole wheat flour so that might have added to the texture but the corn meal was the real helper in that respect. When I tasted it alone, it reminded me of a mix between pie crust and corn bread. It really was very good if you like the grainy, earthy texture you get from cornmeal. Which I do!

As for the apples, we used Pink Lady apples for baking for the first time in our tarte Tatin. They are tart and sweet at the same time and, if eating them raw, they are crisp and have a solid texture (not mealy). I was surprised how well they kept their shape and flavor when baked. They were so good in the tarte that we wanted to try them in a pie…or…a pandowdy. They are going to be our new baking apple and we liked the mix with the Granny Smith. I eat a Pink Lady apple every day for a snack in the afternoon and buy at least 15 every week. When we’re baking with apples I guess it’s going to be a lot more!

What we would change.

We aren’t getting a new oven, but that would be number one on our list! When we make it again, we will probably make it exactly the same! Nothing needed changed. It wasn’t too sweet or not flavorful enough. We couldn’t think of any spices we would have added. It really is perfect just the way it is! (We didn’t even think it looked “dowdy”.)

On a side note, I read a recipe that used the juices off of ripe bananas, reduced the juice by half, and then used the bananas and the reduction in a banana bread. IF I were going to make any changes, I might try to double the apple juice/cider and then reduce it by half just to see if it would create a stronger flavor. But, again, it really didn’t need a stronger flavor.

What we learned.

This was our first recipe ever using the spice “mace”. Mace comes from the nutmeg plant. When we smelled it, we thought it smelled a bit like nutmeg and a bit like cloves. It is a new spice to us and we have decided to try it in a few more things just to see how we like it (we have a new container of it after all). We also learned about “dowdying” and have already started talking about how we might do the same with our fruit pies. It was quite honestly the best tasting way I’ve ever thickened a pie!

Until next week, Happy Baking!